Here Comes the Son
Here Comes the Son is the 17th episode (19th in Japan) of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. It is notable for being the first appearance of Knuckle Joe and his father and the first appearance of the Fighter ability. Synopsis Knuckle Joe travels to Castle Dedede in search of the person who killed his father. He comes across King Dedede and Escargoon, who tell him that Kirby is the warrior who had done it. Seeking revenge, Knuckle Joe runs to Cappy Town to challenge him to a battle. Episode Summary The episode starts with a white figure flying around, and he sees the N.M.E. Sales Guy. The white figure asks to see the Star Warrior of Popstar, so the N.M.E. Sales Guy takes him there. When he gets there, he creates an earthquake that alarms everyone in the castle. King Dedede immediately orders the Waddle Dees to attack the enemy, while everyone else goes to see what's going on. But when they arrive, the Waddle Dees have already been defeated, so Meta Knight decides to fight the mysterious entity, but he dodges all of his attacks, so King Dedede and Escargoon arrive with their tank and shoot a cannon ball at the entity. Unfortunately, they miss him and only end up with destroying the wall, and both of them are thrown outside the castle, where the entity starts to lose his white light. He introduces himself to Dedede as Knuckle Joe, which surprises Meta Knight a lot, and asks him about a Star Warrior; Dedede responds by telling him about Kirby, so Knuckle Joe goes in search for him, running rampant around the village. Tiff and Tuff hear about this, so they evacuate Kirby out of his house that was filled with fruit he found earlier, while also surprises Tokkori. All of a sudden, the Warp Star takes Kirby away from his home while Tiff asks Tokkori to go to Cappy Town and warn everyone that they are in danger. However, before he can warn anyone, Knuckle Joe zaps him with a lightning bolt and starts to destroy the town whenever someone doesn't know where Kirby is, eventually he talks with Chief Bookem, asking him to report a crime Kirby did, surprised he ask Knuckle Joe what did he do to him and why he is reporting him. So Knuckle Joe explains that he is searching revenge to the Star Warrior that killed his father, to which Chief Bookem laughs uncontrollably at, saying that it's ridiculous that Kirby would do such a thing, causing Knuckle Joe to angrily punch him at the police station so hard that it breaks the wall, and so he continues his rampage. When the night arrives, while the other citizens hide at the police station, Tiff, Tuff, Chef Kawasaki, and Kirby go to a cave with a bag full of food to hide themselves, but Escargoon sees them. Arriving at the cavern, Tiff tells Kirby that it is too dangerous to fight Knuckle Joe and it is better to run away from him, but thanks to Escargoon and King Dedede, Knuckle Joe finds them and is surprised to see Kirby is only a baby. After a bit of doubts about if Kirby is seriously the right person and a bit of convincing from Escargoon and King Dedede, he challenges Kirby to a fight and easily takes him with Vulcan Jabs, Smash Punches, Spin Kicks, Down Kicks, and Throws. Tuff then tells Tiff to summon the Warp Star during the battle. Tiff starts to, but then Escargoon ties them up to prevent her from summoning it. Chef Kawasaki tells them, "You can't tie kids up like that!" but then Dedede ties him up too. Knuckle Joe knocks Kirby into a cliff and hits him with a roundhouse. He then decides to finish him off, surprising Dedede, Escargoon, Tiff, and Tuff. Then, at the last second, Meta Knight jumps down and blocks Knuckle Joe's fist with his sword. Dedede and Escargoon run up and tell him to mind his own business. Tiff and Tuff run up to him, thanking him for saving Kirby. Dedede and Escargoon then turn around wondering who untied them, which was revealed to be Blade Knight and Sword Knight, who in the meanwhile where also freeing Chef Kawasaki. Meta Knight then tells him that it was he who killed Knuckle Joe's father. A flashback ensues about Knuckle Joe's father and Meta Knight both in the Galaxy Soldier Army. They were the greatest of friends, but one night, when they were asleep, monsters ambushed them, and Knuckle Joe's father was captured. He was dying, so eNeMeE revived him, while at the same, he became one of eNeMeE's men. When he went back to the Galaxy Soldier Army, he attacked them, so Meta Knight had no choice but to kill Knuckle Joe's father for the galaxy. He succeeded, but before he died, he gave Meta Knight a locket containing a picture of Knuckle Joe as a baby. Knuckle Joe still doesn't believe him, but to prove that he is telling the truth, Meta Knight gives him the locket, but when he does, Knuckle Joe calls his father a weakling. Meta Knight proceeds to tell Knuckle Joe that he has become a monster too because of what he has done to Kirby, but Knuckle Joe refuses to believe that and Meta Knight tells him that the only way to prove that is to challenge Kirby so they can see who he really is. Knuckle Joe continues fighting Kirby, and Tiff tells Kirby to inhale what he throws next, so he inhales his Smash Punch, and becomes Fighter Kirby for the first time. He counterattacks Knuckle Joe's attacks with his own. Suddenly, Knuckle Joe unlocks a strange power he has and turns into a spike-ball. Kirby inhales one of his needles and becomes Needle Kirby. He shoots needles at Knuckle Joe and reverts him back to normal, but before losing consciousness, he says that he is not a monster and Meta Knight says he knows that. Later on, he says goodbye to everyone, and leaves through the Nightmare Enterprises delivery system, adding to what Dedede still owes to N.M.E. Changes in the dub Scene Changes * After the scene where Tiff instructs Tokkori to go into Cappy Town and warn them about Knuckle Joe, the next scene is a panning shot of the entire town square. In the Japanese version, the camera pan starts at Dr. Yabui and Melman sitting on a bench and ends at a shepherd cappy at the other end. In the English dub, this sequence has been shortened significantly as it instead starts from Iro and Spikehead and ends with Honey at the center of the square. ** The scene where Mabel, Buttercup, and Hana are conversing was cut in the English dub. ** When the camera cuts to Dr. Yabui and Melman sleeping on the bench, this scene was shortened in the English dub. ** The scene where Knuckle Joe finding Kirby in his house, he kicks the watermelon and it was cut in the English dub due for unknown reasons. * As Meta Knight and Knuckle Joe stare down one another, there is a shot reverse shot scene - after this is an aerial view of their stare-down as the camera zooms downwards on them. After that shot is a camera pan that begins with Knuckle Joe and ends with Meta Knight before the latter speaks and quickly pans back to the former. In the English dub, all of these camera angles/scenes have been completely removed. Script/Sound Changes *Many swear words were removed from the dub. *Spin Kick was changed to Roundhouse. In The Kirby Quiz, however, it is called Spin Kick. *While Kirby is carrying vegetables on his back, he hears something in the original version. In the dub, he stops in his tracks and becomes confused for seemingly no reason in part due to the dub cutting out the SFX. *As King Dedede and Escargoon go to investigate the cause of the earthquake, Escargoon questions the king by asking if he ordered anything, to which Dedede denies having done such thing. In the English dub, he proclaims it's coming from his room while his lackey just says he's relieved because his room was cleaned. *After Meta Knight saves Kirby and frees the children and Chef Kawasaki, he turns to redirect his attention back to Knuckle Joe. He has scripted lines as he does so in the Japanese version, but remains silent in the dub. Cosmetic Changes * In the beginning scene, Knuckle Joe comes across a golden barrier that bears the "HNM Co. Network" wording on it in the Japanese version; the original version's barrier also had more detail engraved in it. As for the English dub, it takes on a much more drastic difference with only a silhouette of Nightmare on the barrier with no other outstanding features or words. * In one scene, Chef Kawasaki's restaurant has a sign on the door that says closed. In the English dub, this sign was removed entirely. Trivia *Knuckle Joe is purple in this episode, but this changes in later episodes. This is a reference to the fact that the enemy Knuckle Joe in Kirby Super Star are initially purple, and change color when they become allies with Kirby. *The title of the episode is a reference to "Here Comes the Sun," a song by the British band, the Beatles. *There is a scene where Knuckle Joe enters a bar in search for Kirby. Direct references to alcohol are made both in the visuals and the dialogue between him and the bartender. Surprisingly, 4Kids did not see fit to remove this despite the references to alcohol. Gallery File:Lightjoe.png|Knuckle Joe glowing with power it:Il figlio del guerriero ja:ナックルジョーがやって来た!